Drug price regulator runs into vanishing cos

India’s drug price regulator has a unique problem. As it moves to revise the prices of medicines, it has found that the manufacturers of as many as 55 of them have simply gone missing.

“There is no information available for 55 random formulations and we may exclude them from the list of price fixation,” CP Singh, chairman, Drug price watchdog National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) told HT.

“We are unable to trace most of the manufacturers,” Singh added.

On July 23, Hindustan Times reported that the NPPA is likely to delay fixing ceiling prices of 100 bulk drugs as little or no information was available on prices. Out of those, some 45 manufactures have responded and the NPPA has got the required pricing information. But the remaining 55 formulations remain pending.

Now, the NPPA is planning to refer the matter to the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to take a final call on the matter. The 55 formulations include antibiotics, painkillers and anti-infectives.

Once implemented, the measure are expected to bring down the prices of these drugs by around 20%. The new drug policy, which caps prices of 652 formulations, has empowered the NPPA to fix the ceiling prices as per the new price control order.